Cost of Travel: A Case Study of Spending for 10 Days in Belgium

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In this post we look at a real life case study of our spending during 10 days in Belgium.

This cost analysis is connected to our Schengen Area Europe Itinerary – 13 Countries in 90 Days.

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Here are our aggregated costs per-category over 10 days of travel in Belgium. Costs are reflected in US Dollars $.

Category	Average Spend $/Person/Day	# of Days in Country	Total Spend $ / Person	Total Spend $ / Two People
Accommodation	$35.79	10	$357.90	$715.79
Transport	$11.06	10	$110.57	$221.14
Shopping + Miscellaneous	$3.02	10	$30.15	$60.30
Sightseeing + Entertainment	$17.30	10	$173.01	$346.02
Wifi	$0.00	10	$0.00	$0.00
Laundry	$0.00	10	$0.00	$0.00
Coffee	$6.87	10	$68.73	$137.46
Breakfast	$1.91	10	$19.06	$38.12
Lunch	$4.87	10	$48.74	$97.47
Dinner	$6.89	10	$68.90	$137.79
Snack	$2.21	10	$22.10	$44.19
Drinks	$1.43	10	$14.31	$28.61
Groceries	$7.79	10	$77.88	$155.75
Summary	$99.13 average spend per person day	10 days of travel	$991.35 total spend per person	$1,982.70 total spend for two people

Assumptions per-category

Category	Notes
Accommodation	–We stayed in hostels. –A typical configuration in the hostel was a 4-bed shared dorm.
Transport	–Costs do not include a flight to enter Belgium (we used airline miles). –We used the public transport system within cities. –We traveled throughout Europe by EuRail. The cost of our ticket is not factored in the above averages.
Shopping + Miscellaneous
Sightseeing + Entertainment	–We participated in tip-based walking tours and visited museums.
Wifi	–Wifi was included in our accommodation costs.
Laundry	–All of the major city hostels we stayed in offered laundry facilities. –We did our laundry on a weekly basis if laundry facilities were unavailable in our hostel.
Coffee	–Coffee in Belgium is a great way to people watch. We went out for two coffees on average per day. –This is not typical of our normal habits.
Breakfast	–We usually ate a light snack for breakfast our accommodation.
Lunch	–We ate out almost every day. –It’s our favorite meal to try out local flavors. –Costs are usually less expensive for the same meal offered at dinner.
Dinner	–We usually eat a light dinner at our accommodation.
Snack	–We kept snacks on hand.
Drinks	–Libations at bars are expensive.
Grocery	–We purchased groceries to use for making breakfast and a light dinner at our accommodation.
Travel Insurance	–We did not include our travel insurance costs in the overall price listed here. — Our insurance ran $3.17/person/day, totaling $31.70 per person for 10 days, $63.40 total for two people.

Notes

1. In categories like laundry, shopping & wifi, we may not have spent any money on these services every day. Instead, we added up the total sum of that costs and divided by the number of days within that particular country. This helped us determine how much to budget for future trips.
2. While we were mindful of our spending, especially because we were abroad for so long, we did splurge on meals and special activities. This may have raised the average costs in a particular category.

Other case studies

A Case Study of Spending During 90 Days in Schengen Area Europe

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How do you keep track of travel expenses?